“Book” as used herein refers to books, magazines, catalogs, pamphlets, envelopes, poly and paper packages and other printed materials. Books are typically assembled through either conventional saddle stitch or perfect binding processes and it should be noted that the present invention may be used in conjunction with saddle stitch, perfect binding, paper/poly packaging and other binding methods.
Printers commonly customize books by including particular signatures within the book based on known characteristics of the recipient. This type of customization is known in the printing industry as selective binding. Selective binding is done by selectively placing designated signatures that are stored in feeders along a binding line onto the binding line such that books are assembled using a particular set of designated signatures based on a recipient's profile. Customization can also occur through the feeding and binding of a CD, onsert, insert or the like into a book in a process known as selective inserting/onserting.
Printers also produce individual books with unique personalized information, graphics or indicia relating to the book's intended recipient. One of the more common ways to personalize a book is to have the recipient's identity and address information printed on the cover of the book once the book is assembled. Another method of personalizing books relates to printing personalized indicia onto one or more signatures before the signatures are assembled into respective books. Signatures can be personalized while they are on the binding line by using an ink jet printer positioned near the binding line. As the signatures pass the ink jet printer, personalized information or indicia is printed onto one or more of the signatures. Signatures may also be pre-personalized (i.e., in a separate or off-line printing process) prior to being fed onto the binding line.
A bound book can be rejected from the binding line for various reasons as are known in the art, i.e., improper signature feed, multiple signature feed, etc. If a rejected book is personalized or contains pre-personalized indicia, the process of regenerating an identical pre-personalized book for the particular recipient is more difficult.